A Walking Tour through the History of the Stuart Dynasty

Our A level History students took a walking tour around London before the end of term. Here is what two students had to say about the trip:

Lily: “We started by looking at the Great Fire of London Memorial. We learnt the royal society used to conduct experiments in a room underneath the monument, but the room did not survive due to traffic causing the ground to shake. We then walked towards the Thames to learn about the pleasure gardens and Samuel Pepys time spent there. We later visited where his house once stood after going to the old Billingsgate fish market, which had fish weathervanes from the 17th century, the Tower of London, and the location of Laud’s execution. We also had the opportunity to go up into a sky garden to look out over all of London before finishing the tour with a trip to a Stuart coffee house, a visit to the only slave trade memorial in London and ending at St Pauls. There, we learnt how he was hung, drawn and quartered, but his supporters snapped his neck by pulling his leg while he was being hung so he did not have to endure the suffering. We found out that this is where the phrase ‘pulling your leg’ comes from.”

Xavier: “Starting right in the heart of London, our guide immediately pointed out the Great Fire of London Monument. After a walk by the Thames, we learnt more about the coffee houses, the high-profile executions at the Tower of London and visited a small monument dedicated to the slave trade, learning that England was one of the biggest slave-trading nations in the world. Our guide also emphasised the importance of London as a centre of booming trade and commerce, with several important economic institutions located there, such as the Bank of England, founded in July 1694. We concluded our tour at St Paul’s Cathedral, reconstructed by architect Sir Christopher Wren in 1972, which still stands in all its majesty today.”